New segment that speaks for itself. Might actually be easier than curating a weekly mixtape, even though I still want to do that. Inspired by KEXP’s Song of the Day podcast. It’s so easy to embed music these days and I figure the technology’s not going anywhere. Check back daily for new tunes.

Anyway, to kick things off, seapunk-inspired shouts and synths by Wifi Princess. Rumour has it that it’s actually a guy’s alter ego, but I don’t think it matters one bit.

The concept revolving around George—in some ways, the very embodiment of lovable mediocrity—would be lost in anything too spectacular.

There’s a new bar in Fitzroy, Melbourne that sounds absolutely lovely in concept and offerings. I’m not much of a Seinfeld fan, but this sounds like exactly the kind of place I’d love to be in. Fuss-free drinks and food, with a loose-theme that doesn’t become some sort of capitalistic churn. It sounds laid-back, with just enough of an edge so that it stands out from the other bars that tend to have some sort of personal brand attached to it.

It’s a homage to a beloved TV show character where patrons can bond over what they love, or don’t. In their execution, the bar owners (The Barretts), have given us “George’s”, which can mean George Costanza or simply whatever meaning you want to attach to George’s.

Monocle worked with Invest in Bavaria for piece about the investment opportunities in the German city. Marketing messages aside, I did take note of some points the video brought up regarding what a forward-thinking and constantly innovating city makes.

Dr. Wolfgang Hübschle, Executive Director, Invest in Bavaria:

If you’re in the innovation business, proximity still matters. Locating to Bravria, you can locate many companies within a 3 hour radius. Along the Autobahn A8 access, almost 60% of German patent applications are done. So you can reach a lot of clients in your proximity.

Insights into what makes Bavaria tick as a place for innovation, business and industry

Highly-skilled workforce

Heritage of entrepreneurship

Proximity to other industries and markets

Infrastructure and Connectivity

Quality of Life

One thing that did stand out was the mention of quality of life. Often overlooked, it is a soft pull-factor that can attract talent. I also aegree with Monocle’s stance that culture is a soft foreign policy power, and that more governments should enable and grow what’s happening in the grassroots to maintain both a healthy mix of mainstream and alternative citizens. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to make this a quantifiable metric, and I believe that it should also be the responsibility of culture growers to bridge the gap with government and regulation.

Matt Alagiah, Monocle:

We decide not to move to cities, not because of their annual GDP growth figures, but because of the restaurants, bars and cultural hotspots they offer. It’s also about the ease with which we can immerse ourselves in nature.

Evidence given by the witnesses — including the Gurkha officers, the two passengers in Mohamed Taufik’s car, and a taxi driver — also pointed to the gunshots being fired after Mohamed Taufik’s car had crashed through concrete barriers at the Vehicle Check Station (VCS), set up as part of security measures for the Shangri-La Dialogue that day.

Bad timing for a wrong turn (and drug possession). I think the security personnel followed their procedures as part of their training, and there was no way to avoid this outcome once you’ve broken past the checkpoint and continuing to accelerate to the final checkpoint, compounded with the gravity of the event’s context that day.

Week 3 of the MWIP project has been rather challenging in terms of making the effort to take a daily photograph. While not a requirement of the project (I’m supposed to present my favourite photos from the week), I did form a tinge of guilt for not keeping up with a daily discipline.

What was fun though, was being able to take some macro shots with the Magniband, a strap with a macro lens that you can easily attach to your smartphone. Link

You can see this in action in 3 of the photos. I don’t think I need to say which. I took those in low light from a singular light source, and was just messing about with the subjects in my room. It’s really interesting when you have a new tool that lets you change your perspective.

Notes from this series

Rain always produces puddles of water which are great for catching reflections. My personal favourites are the ones where I caught the building’s reflection in the manhole cover, and the one where you can see the refletion of two girls sitting on a bench. The stains on the floor were also an excellent foreground for the frame. It’s sort of like a dirty dream.

Patterns. Not really a fan of how I captured the shot with the installation made from lights. But, the idea was there. Through my eyes, it was calming to see all the lights in a row, in a repeated system. Unfortunately, I didn’t achieve that through the perspective of my lens. Limitations of the photographer and the tool I reckon.

Composition and shapes. The shot of the balcony that was half wet and half over-exposed also struck me as one that I really like. It’s rather neat in the way the subjects are segmented, and all through the randomness of nature. It was one photograph where I did absolutely zero post-production.

The photo of the clouds was the most liked photo on instagram that week, which I find surprising. Personally, I find it boring, but I suppose it was a beautiful day, and people do like to look at clouds. I’m open to that, that these presentations are a dialogue with whoeever comes across them. I just find it boring, because I wasn’t really challenged in any way while taking the photo. I do think it’s nice though.

Maybe if you see something you like, or something that strikes you, I’d like to know! Leave a comment, and maybe we can start a dialogue regarding this project.

On the surface, routine can kill creativity, but I find that it discounts the necessary discipline needed in order to cultivate a process of creativity.

I didn’t have a routine of creativity for last week, since it was the routine of life. As such, I wasn’t taking photos during the day since I was pretty much going to the same locations, communting to and from work. However, the needs of the project required me to constantly keep one eye open, for things I normally would not have seen.

What I mean is that I wasn’t constantly looking at my phone while I was on breaks, or during my commutes. It’s incredible the amount of visual information there is outside of the confines of the phone, and I think it’s a good habit to keep even if this project was no more.

Look up, look around, you’ll find your subjects for your frame.

Some notes from this series:

The first photo happened on a Monday night commute, as I was feeling exasperation from not being able to find a subject, and a somewhat empty train, I looked out the window as it was moving and noticed the reflection of lights and a lone person. It’s not the sharpest of photos, but I think it conveys the fleetingness of our mortal coils.

The photo of the empty street is unremarkable, but I was confronted by this empty street one day after work. It was disconcerting to not be around the usual bustle of the workplace’s vicinity, and I decided to take the opportunity to walk in the middle of the road to take my shot.

The closeup of the leaf was inspired when I saw my partner take a similar photo. I wanted something with more shadow waves, but I’m still rather pleased at how this one turned out. The one-source light really brings out the pre-existing lines of the leaf, and I think it succeeds in highlghting the things you don’t usually notice about nature that’s around us.

Well, the very first week of 2016 is over, and there are 51 more weeks of this project to go.

I don’t really know why I’m approaching this as a countdown, but one of the useful byproducts is that I get to keep track of where exactly in the year I am, and how much time we have left for the year, before the cycle starts again. Kinda like how for some of us, when it’s Friday, we’re already thinking of Monday, and the dread that follows it.

One of the challenges of this project is taking time to either take photos, or compile them into a post. As such, quite a few photos from last week involved shadows, because whilst I’m at work, I do leave the office at different times and notice different things.

I usually hang out near some corners, so you do get some interesting shapes at different times of the day, and I am starting to get a bit of a handle on the sharpness of the shadows based on the time of the day.

I’m not too sure what I’ll be exploring for Week 02, but pray that I find something.

And by focusing on conversation and messaging, the majority of tweets will always be short and sweet and conversational!

We’re not going to be shy about building more utility and power into Twitter for people. As long as we’re consistent with what people want to do, we’re going to explore it.

As long as that feature doesn’t get in the way of the core product feature, which in my opinion, is brevity. If I wanted a feed that pushed me long-form content, I’d go look for Medium.

To me, the best thing about Twitter (I’ve found myself going back to it and engaging on it), is that it clearly distills thought from people, making us choose our words better. Too many people think that more words means more meaning. But, If it doesn’t fit a tweet, it’s not worth saying.

If Pinboard were not a paid service, we could not have stayed up on December 16, and I would have been forced to either seek outside funding or close signups. Instead, I was immediately able to hire contractors, add hardware, and put money in the bank against further development.

If you start as a business, not a company and earn revenue from paying customers from day one, market forces have less sway on your business than customer sway.

So are you a company with no business, a company with one business, or a company with many businesses?

Pinboard might be small in size compared to unicorns, but it serves a loyal customer base, and is run by one man. Damn, I love this guy thinks.